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Church leadership within the South Korean context

Kang, Gil-Soo (2002-03)

Thesis (DTh)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.

Thesis

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is generally said that modern Korean church leadership has gradually lost its vitality. Since
the 1960s, many Korean church leaders have implemented secularised, church-centred, and
authoritarian leadership. However, without noticing these fundamental problems, the leaders
have identified the crisis with membership stagnation or decline. Such an inadequate or even
wrong diagnosis of leadership realities has led to a wrong way of addressing the problem. The
Korean church has focused on the development of a methodology for numerical church
growth to remedy this membership decline.
This study thus aims to construct a contextual yet biblical leadership theology by which the
Korean church can evaluate the realities of its leadership appropriately. This aim can be
achieved by means of the methodology that is employed in contemporary practical theology.
Chapter 2 provides a general understanding of the context in which Korean church leaders
have provided leadership by discussing Korean church history from the perspective of the role
that dominant leadership images have played. The result demonstrates that a sound theology
of church leadership needs to be constructed for the Korean church.
Chapter 3 reviews the trends in contemporary practical theology from which the methodology
employed by this study is derived. The chapter also surveys the historical development of
leadership theories in social science from which theoretical support can be obtained for the
critical analysis of Korean church leadership.
Chapter 4 develops a systematic theological theory (base theory) for two concepts that play an
integral role in this study. PTA (practical theological anthropology) and PTE (practical
theological ecclesiology) function as theological foundations for this study.
The four-phased methodology that this study employs starts with an analysis of the contextual
situation. Chapter 5, as the descriptive phase, gives a statistical analysis of the realities of
leadership in the Korean church by using several reports of surveys from reliable research
organizations.
Chapter 6, as the hemeneutic phase, presents an interpretive endeavour of the empirical
results from Chapter 5. Because of the inadequacy of mono-dimensional interpretation, this
study attempts to interpret the results of the analysis multi-dimensionally: religio-culturally,
socio-politically and economically, and theologically.
Chapter 7, as the nonnative phase, demonstrates some theological principles that the current
Korean church should develop in order to cope with the present leadership crisis and to
choose the right direction for its future. These theological principles can be derived from the
statistical analysis and its interpretation in the light of PTA and PTE. The principles are:
spirituality, vision, and love.
Chapter 8, as the strategic phase, proposes a model of leadership for the Korean church,
namely, servant leadership. This model can integrate and reflect the three principles
(spirituality, vision, and love) demonstrated in Chapter 7. The Korean church will be on the
right path if the principles of a servant approach characterise leadership in the church.